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Sofubi Sabbath 4# – Presided by King Hideous Toys

#sofubisabbath is a new regular feature on the blog where I’ll invite one person a the time to conduct this celebration. Meaning presenting 6 favorite pieces/concepts and talk about them or simply promote your work or show off your collection.

Presiding today’s ceremony will be the dynamic duo of King Hideous Toys. Brothers Bryn and Colm are masters painters, collectors and the creators of the epic Dungeon Beast kaiju. Now they will share with us 6 of their most treasured pieces and school us with sofubi knowledge. You can find King Hideous Toys on Instagram HERE, if you can, you should definitely add one of their creation to you collection. No collection is complete without the King.

Welcome to Sofubi Sabbath! Brave are those who attend.

We gather once more for this plastic celebration. No one, but two dark figures appear in the centre of the circle. They both share a crown, the both start chanting unspeakable plastic truths. 6 raven screams, 6 times we turn left, 6 figures Bryn and Colm chose.

Colm’s Picks

1# THE SATANIC WAR BROTHERS

These two are from Purple Toys and the now defunct Skidztoyz (who held the lottery). They are THE SATANIC WAR BROTHERS.

I mean c’mon that name is awesome! And these toys, they are also awesome. Mostly black/g.i.d marble and some red/g.i.d. marble parts. It’s like a punk version of Chicken George by Kazuo Umezu and a punk “The Fly”.

These have a special place in my heart, as I got these around the time we realized that our toy was going to take much longer than anticipated to get into vinyl.

Winning these felt like the push to keep going. ‘Cause, I mean, we are satanic war brothers.

2# LEVANEUS and ULTIOTL made by Ukydaydreamer

Now this is a set of LEVANEUS and ULTIOTL (respectively). made by Ukydaydreamer.

I got this set on my first (and only, for now) trip to Japan. I got them from the One-Up store at Nakano Broadway in Tokyo.

We came back a day early from Osaka just so I could be there early enough to snatch these bad boys up.

It was a quite an exciting and new experience to actually be there for a store drop! ULTIOLT is one of the first sofubi that inspired me to make toys as well, so thank you Ukydaydreamer.

Bryn’s Picks

3# Gigalugon made by KtoKto

This is Gigalugon, made by KtoKto. This guy is an outstanding sculptor who has done some work for big makers in the scene. I got to meet him at his first solo gallery show in December 2019, on my dang honey-moon! He’s as talented as is he nice.

Gigalugon reminds me so much of an enemy from those near-mystical Japanese dungeon-crawler games you saw pictures of in gaming magazines when you were a kid. So different yet somehow familiar! It brings up that kind of excitement, and is super fun in hand. Did I mention Kto is just a super rad guy?

4# Enma by Mutant Vinyl Hardcore x Blobpus

Enma, a collaboration between two heavy-weights, Mutant Vinyl Hardcore and Blobpus.

This is actually the one, the toy that got me into sofubi. I got stared down by a multi-coloured trio of Enma at HeroGangu in Osaka, on my first trip to Japan. It straight-up, full-on changed my life. 

Both Picked

5# Toxigon, by Mutant Vinyl Hardcore

Toxigon, by Mutant Vinyl Hardcore. Flat-out, this is a master-class in sculpting and character design. It’s big, disgusting, beautiful and inspiring. All those textures, all the little things that give it huge personality.

The different references that were blended into Toxigon are easy to identify though don’t overpower him as a unique design. It’s the best damn 90’s Saturday morning cartoon character that we never got. Both of us have spent many hours studying this guy. For any texture and for thinking of a silhouette outside the box, this guy is the go-to for kick-starting the imagination..

6#  The Dungeon Beast by King Hideous Toys

This is our first toy. It’s still mind-blowing to both of us that we finally got here.

The story behind The Dungeon Beast is ridiculous, totally ridiculous. Time-warping, life changing exposure to sofubi in Osaka. Telepathic brother communication. Taking the original sculpt to Japan, in Tupperware containers. Fried chicken in Shibuya. New friends both in the Satanic Temple and in Straight-edge toy crews. Black-metal J-pop Idol bands. A hacksaw. It is a long, strange story. A some points we weren’t sure that we would ever get here. In the end, we did though. The Dungeon Beast is just the first step into a whole world of reality-bending, heavy-metal worship, Eldritch horror that we have planned.

For us, this toy is much more than the accomplishment of getting this far. This toy is friendship with people that we would have never, ever crossed paths with. It’s the total culmination of our insane imaginations, and the complete gratification of moving from life-long toy collectors to (hopefully) life-long toy makers. If it matters to anyone reading this, The Dungeon Beast is twelve inches of blood-drinking, bone-crushing, soul-eating vinyl and we couldn’t be happier.

Are there things we would have done differently? For sure, we sculpted this guy almost FIVE YEARS ago, and have grown so much as makers. If we had the chance, would we change him? No way. This is the way he was meant to be. Brutal. And kinda silly.

We feel honoured and enlightened by the words and pictures shared in this ceremony. 

Silently and slowly we return to our every day life with the feeling that nothing will be like before.

We thank the brothers Bryn and Colm of King Hideous Toys for presiding this #sofubisabbath.

Find King Hideous Toys on Instagram HERE. Be on the lookout for future drops of the insane Dungeon Beast, we know we will!

We’ll see you on the next #sofubisabbath, brave are those who attend.

We have a forum dedicated to this series, be sure to discuss everything sofubi HERE.

Click below to check previous editions.

Want to preside the ceremony? Email us at [email protected] with your 6 favourite pieces.

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Written by Pedro

A portuguese art lover and designer toys fanatic. A musician with a terrible fashion sense. Coffee lover. Don't seem to get much sleep these days...

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